Trouble brewing

[Slickdonkey]

I think trouble is brewing in my tank. About 3 weeks ago my xenia starting looking a whitish color rather than it's usual pink. My green star polyps have been retracted for the last few days. Now my rose anemone isn't fully extending when the lights come on.

I'm not sure what's going on. There have been no major changes lately, i.e. lighting or anything of that nature. Fish, SPS, and LPS are looking fine.

Parameters are in check: Ca 400, Alk 9.6 dKH, NO3 0, PO4 0, Si 0.

I know it's difficult to troubleshoot without actually seeing the equipment and setup, but if anyone has any bright ideas I'm all ears. I've heard xenia can be a good early indicator of impending water quality problems so I'm a little worried.

 

[Reefdaddy1]

I would check Iodine. Xenia is renoun for reacting to lack of Iodine. Try dosing it and see if that helps.

 

[Scooterman]

Xenia should get enough Iodine through food sources & WC's but they will die off from other coral posing, when you start keep many other corals they slowly deteriorate Xenia even in a larger tank. Move so to your QT & see how well it does alone

 

[returnofsid]

I'd suggest running carbon for a few days to see if there's any improvement. Could be that some of your existing corals are giving off defensive chemicals. Maybe one of your corals has decided it wants to expand it's real estate so is putting out chemicals to inhibit other coral growth. Carbon should remove it if that's the case.

 

[Slickdonkey]

Yeah I was wondering about the chemical warfare, but I already run carbon (changed every 4 weeks) and ozone.

I could move the xenia, but it seemed like too much of a coincidence that my anemone and green star polyps were showing signs of stress at the same time.

 

[Scooterman]

All it takes is one to make for a bad day for the rest, that could affect more than Xenia. Carbon should be changed out sooner for the effectiveness to clear up something like this, don't know If Ozone would remove toxins of this sort.

 

[Slickdonkey]

Ok I'll try changing the carbon every two weeks for now. At the moment I've turned the ozone off because I'm not running the effluent over carbon. I know the experts say to do this, but I've never gotten around to rigging it up because some people claim not to have done this for years with no ill effects.

I wish I knew who the culprit was, if this is in fact the problem. I already knew that the green stars were probably going to have to go, but I don't think they're the ones causing trouble this time or they wouldn't be retracted.

My tank (240 gallons) is not really that heavily loaded with corals yet. I've seen a lot of tanks that are jam-packed with all different varieties and seem to be doing fine, so I wasn't expecting to have this problem so soon.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Hate to suggest the obvious, but what about a water change?

 

[DonW]

I'd wonder if your nutrient level are falling to low for them. Do you have a fuge? A good indicator is how well the macro is doing. If its startving off the softies will soon follow.

Don

 

[Reefdaddy1]

after i posted Don, I thought maybe the samething. A decent water change should see some results if that were the case. Chemical warfare is a possibility but I would think the xenia would receede rather then turn white.

 

[Slickdonkey]

Hate to suggest the obvious, but what about a water change?

Right... My system changes 5 gallons every day and I just did a 45 gallon water change a few days ago to see if that helps. Certainly a big water change will be next on my list if nothing else helps.

I'd wonder if your nutrient level are falling to low for them. Do you have a fuge? A good indicator is how well the macro is doing. If its startving off the softies will soon follow.

I doubt this it the problem... I do have a fuge, which is mostly growing bryopsis/hair algae at the moment :| Also some chaeto, and I am getting a small amount of slime algae in the display as well, probably because I think my fuge is too small (~40 gallons for a 240 gallon tank). I plan to upgrade it in the future.

after i posted Don, I thought maybe the samething. A decent water change should see some results if that were the case. Chemical warfare is a possibility but I would think the xenia would receede rather then turn white.

Here's a before (few months ago) and after picture:

 

[Elmo18]

Brian, didn't you just expose them to 400W of lights??? Was this a change from 250W??

Best,
Ilham

 

[Slickdonkey]

Ilham, it's been about three months since the change, and it was only for about 3 weeks. Then I moved to two 400W 20K's and two 250W 10K's.

 

[Scooterman]

WOW didn't know they were so big, back to the Xenia idea, why not try & move just a little one & see if it does well in the QT tank being it doesn't have much in it or does it? Just to sample a curious person! I know this won't help find the solution but It would help to see if we're even close to the idea of possible coral poisoning, you know you see tanks loaded with coral but either they know what they mix with & placement or just didn't have problems at that time.

 

[Jan]

SD, do you have an update on this?

I just noticed this thread and it piqued my interest because a small bunch of xenia that I had also turned white and stiff on me, shortly after I dosed with calcium and iodine. I think I may have added too much. I did a 25% water change, noticed no difference. But now after a few weeks everything is back to normal; the sick xenia either disappeared or turned pink again. In any case, the remaining xenia in my tank is thriving.

 

[Slickdonkey]

SD, do you have an update on this?

Not really; the xenia is looking worse if anything. It seems to be melting away. My RBTA and green star polyps are also retracted. I may try taking out the green stars and see if that helps.

Most likely chemical warfare going on. Since the SPS is doing fine I'll bet they are the culprits. I'm a little surprised the anemone is affected though.

 

[steven11]

Hey slick, do you do any iodine supplement. I have a heavly stocked 36gal tank with too many fish, sps, lps, softies, a sebae, and a clam(pretty much doing every thing wrong). Mike can attest to it being overstocked. I supplement iodine and cal every day. My xenia will also go through this phase every once in a while where it ends up looking like what yours does. My recomendation would be keep doing your daily routine and water changes. I think with xenia you may be hurting it more by doing to much. As far as i understand, softies love iodine and it has been working for me. Good luck!

 

[Slickdonkey]

Hmmm, thanks for the advice, but personally I've never bought into the dosing iodine thing -- especially since I change water regularly. Also the fact that the anemone is retracted is telling me something else is going on.

 

[steven11]

No worries. Its just hard for me to believe that water changes contain enough iodine to support a reef tank but does not contain nearly enough of any other element that we often dose. But every one has their own secrets. Check this out, it specificly talks about xenia and anemones. It is the little blurb about Two Fishies Iodine. It may be worth a try.

Two Little Fishies Performance Iodine Concentrate™ is a solution that provides the element iodine in a form easily utilized by marinelife. Biological processes, filtration, precipitation, and incorporation by marinelife all rapidly deplete iodine from aquarium water. Two Little Fishies Performance Iodine Concentrate safely replenishes the iodine concentration, which benefits molting crustaceans and promotes vitality and bright coloration in corals, anemones, & Tridacna spp. clams. Helps prevent bleaching in corals, and is especially useful for the cultivation of Xenia and other delicate soft corals. For optimal results, use in combination with Peter Wilkens CombiSan, which replenishes iodine and other trace elements, and Kalkwasser, the formula Wilkens developed over 20 years ago to maintain calcium & alkalinity. To rapidly raise calcium and alkalinity, use Two Little Fishies C-Balance, which also provides magnesium and strontium in the correct ratios, for corals, clams, and calcareous algae that build skeletons, shells, & crusts from calcium carbonate. Keep out of reach of children. Not for human consumption. For aquarium use only. Not for use with fish raised for human consumption.